1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a liquid crystal display.
2. Discussion of the Background
Liquid crystal displays are widely used as a type of flat panel display. A liquid crystal display has two display panels on which field generating electrodes such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode are formed, and a liquid crystal layer is interposed between the display panels. In the liquid crystal display, voltages are applied to the field generating electrodes to generate an electric field through the liquid crystal layer. The alignment of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer is determined by the electric field strength experienced by the liquid crystal molecules. As light passes through the liquid crystal layer, the polarization of the incident light is controlled via interactions with the liquid crystal molecules, thereby creating an image display.
Among the LCDs, a vertical alignment (VA) mode LCD, which aligns LC molecules with their long axes perpendicular to the panels in the absence of an electric field, is highlighted because of its high contrast ratio and wide reference viewing angle.
In the vertical alignment (VA) mode LCD, the wide reference viewing angle may be realized by forming a plurality of domains including liquid crystal of different alignment directions in one pixel.
As one example of forming the plurality of domains in one pixel, a method of forming cutouts establishes minute slits in the field generating electrodes. In this method, the plurality of domains may be formed by aligning the liquid crystal molecules vertically with respect to a fringe field generated between the edges of the cutout and the field generating electrodes facing the edges.
The information in this section is for understanding of the background of the invention, and, therefore, it may contain information that is not part of the prior art.